Offaly GAA's parish rule under renewed scrutiny

ONE of Offaly GAA's longest standing rules, the Parish Rule, has come back up for discussion after three young players and two officers have been suspended for breaking it.

The three young players live close to Kinnitty but across the parish border in Drumcullen-Eglish. Two of the players were suspended for 12 weeks in January for playing for Kinnitty-Lusmagh in an U-13 hurling game in April 2022 while another player was similarly banned for playing in an U-17 hurling league fixture in the same month by the Offaly GAA Competitions Control Committee (CCC).

The chairperson and secretary of the Kinnitty-Lusmagh underage amalagamation, Michael Troy and Kevin Callaghan have also been hit with three month bans.

Appeals have been lodged with the Offaly GAA Hearings Committee and they are waiting for these to be heard.

The Parish Rule has been the cornerstone of the way Offaly runs its GAA affairs since being first implemented in 1909. It rules that players must play with a club in the parish that they either reside in or were born in.

In their appeal, Kinnitty GAA Club have cited rule 1.13 of the Official Guide Part B, which deals with protecting children from “harm, discrimination or degrading children, and shall respect their rights, wishes and feelings”.

They have asked for them to be approved as members of Kinnitty GAA Club as it is “the only club they have known and been part of since birth” while they have also asked Offaly GAA to “respect their wishes” as per rule 1.3”.

The club have also accused the County Board of “discriminating” against the players as they are being “singled out” for joining a club outside their catchment area. In their appeal, Kinnitty have referred to the “high volume” of such cases in Offaly and said the children don't understand why they are being “treated differently to their peers”. The club have stated: “We see this as an injustice as a result of this decision by the CCC. This degrading treatment should not be allowed”.

The children live in the Knockbarron and Droughtville townslands. There have been historic tugs of war over players in these townslands, particularly Knockbarron, going back to early in the 20th century.

The three sets of parents, Kevin and Lisa Dooley, Liam and Breed O'Brien, both Knockbarron and Seamus and Yvonne O'Brien, Droughtville have gone public this week as they want to highlight the case and the desire of their chilldren to play with Kinnitty. They have accused the County Board of “discrimination” with Lisa Dooley saying that the parish rule has not “served them well”. She asked: “Are the County Board happy with their decision, which has stopped three young lads in a small club from playing a sport they love? This should not be a decision made so rigidly that the family connections are completely ignored. Is the Parish rule right here?”

Offaly GAA chairman Michael Duignan said he could not comment on individual cases that are under appeal but he did remark: “We are governed by the Parish Rule and it has served us well. If clubs want to bring it to Convention, they have that right and it is a matter for clubs to decide.”

He responded to criticism from the parents that they have no Children's Officer in place by explaining that the outgoing officer stepped down at Christmas because of work commitments and he is currently trying to fill the role.”

Chairman of Kinnitty GAA Club, Ger Coughlan has called on the County Board to launch a review of the parish rule and to cater for people in this situation. He highlighted high profile players living in the Kinnitty area who they allowed to play with Seir Kieran as it was their wishes and the club their families were a part of: former Offaly hurling stars, Joe, Billy and Johnny Dooley and Joe Bergin, and their siblings.

“If we tried to stop them, we knew we would be breaking up a community, causing huge stress on a family and probably stopping three of our greatest hurlers from winning All-Irelands for Offaly,” Mr Coughlan said.

Drumcullen GAA chairman Toni Ryan revealed that they offered to cede those three young players to Kinnity but it wasn't accepted. “Rules are rules and we have to get on with it. Those three players were offered to Kinnitty and Kinnitty turned it down. We tried to get the County Board to mediate. I don't want to see young lads not hurling. This has to stop. We just don't have the numbers. What happens when these lads grow up and build in that area. They will want their lads playing with Kinnitty and it continues on down the line.”

Ger Coughlan said it is a county wide problem, with breaches of the parish rule all over the place and it needs to be dealt with in its totality rather than on an individual basis.

It is the latest test for the parish rule in Offaly. Last year, Tullamore GAA surprisingly withdrew a motion seeking an addition to it allowing children of parents with a strong connection to a club in another parish to play with them.

They had submitted the motion and canvassed support for it after the the County Board had been asked by Cappincur to deal with the legality of some young players living in their area. The board ruled that they could not play with Tullamore, that they must be registered with Cappincur and play their underage football with St Vincent's (the Daingean parish underage club) and that the parish rule must be enforced.

This issue is still ongoing and has been revisted by Tullamore GAA Club with an appeal scheduled to be heard shortly